Fweethawt Posted June 14, 2016 Share Posted June 14, 2016 http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79691913/ If you live in the United States, it's easy to be lulled into thinking that the battle for broader civil rights for gay people is nearly over. The last few years have brought important victories in courts, legislatures and at the ballot box, and momentum is firmly on the side of increased equality. That's not true, however, in other parts of the world. The vitriol that has fueled U.S. culture wars for so long is now being exported, and some of our most ardent culture warriors are finding a far more receptive audience abroad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TardisThinker Posted June 14, 2016 Share Posted June 14, 2016 I don’t know how to describe how angry this makes me. When I found this on the internet a while ago I lost my temper for a solid hour. A little secret shame of mine is that my grandparents were Southern Baptist missionaries in Nigeria. Proselytizing in general has always bothered me, but over the past year or two I have been learning more about the unique and terrible roles that missionaries have played in Africa currently and throughout history. And then I learned what happens to you if you are found to be gay in Nigeria, and I was devastated. It wasn’t always like this. The different cultural groups in Nigeria actually had several cool LGBT traditions, but then the missionaries came and spread their religion and told them it was an abomination, a sin. And I love my grandparents so much and I know they had good intentions but it’s so disturbing to me that they probably fed the system. This is just so cruel and manipulative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinEater Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 How many people are gay in the US? Compare that to the number of homeless kids in America alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TardisThinker Posted June 18, 2016 Share Posted June 18, 2016 I'm not sure that I understand what you mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miamia Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 Missionaries make me angry. I went to Mongolia and china with my parents and a bunch of other people from YWAM. We worked with orphans and did do some stuff to help, but realIstically, we only did a few days worth of real, tangible work, bathing, lice treatments, cutting hair, playing games, cooking food, I remember the children were obsessed with my little sister because she was BLOND. it was so funny. I just looked like one of the Russian/mix kids. But anyway, there was a whole lot of proselytizing. Skits were all the rage back then, and the adults in our group were really convinced that they were helping, but in reality they were just doing weird mime moves to music with words like "sex, drugs, lying , stealing" written on cardboard signs (as an aside most of these kids have to steal to survive, the orphanage didnt provide enough, they literally ate apple slices boiled in water when we were there. they run wild during the day with rusty razors in their pockets for pickpocketing,and other practical purposes, which our members also misguidedly took from them.) All of these antics in front of a room full of, 7 year Olds on average. They had no means to interpret it. The people in our group had a great time hiking the mountains, visiting the markets, trying tobacco snuff, buying souveniers, treats, and jewelry, (precious metals ABOUND in that land) taking pictures with the poor little children, and jacking themselves off over the "impact" they were having though. Voluntourism. Most people who know anything about cultural diversity will tell you how fucking careful you have to be when you are attempting to "help" a "Struggling" people. If you are hellbent on preserving a culture or phenotype that is literally in danger of dying out? Good go do that. But just going and meddling and white knighting all over the place when a country actually has the willpower and capacity to make its own effort, is so misguided. It's like introducing an invasive species to a foreign ecosystem you know nothing about to change the things you dont approve of. Change has to happen organically or what was there will be destroyed. Who knows what will replace it. That's the risk you take when you just blunder in and tear open a new niche. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sybaris Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Missionaries make me angry. Lol My wife regularly attended a church that was heavily vested in missionary "work". It started when they got a new Minister who wanted to fund his daughter for missionary work in Africa............. though she was never in attendance at church services. During one service he showed a presentation of her work plan and budget. One of the items in this budget was $50k for a vehicle. I don't remember what the grand total was but the cost of the vehicle is indicative of the extravagance. To fund this excursion he wanted every member of the flock to sign a promise to put at least $50 in the offering plate every Sunday. Coincidentally this guy, as a side job, manages investments exclusively for wealthy Christians. He was the consummate charlatan-tent preacher snake-in-the-grass ever-smiling flock fleecer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miamia Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Missionaries make me angry. Lol My wife regularly attended a church that was heavily vested in missionary "work". It started when they got a new Minister who wanted to fund his daughter for missionary work in Africa............. though she was never in attendance at church services. During one service he showed a presentation of her work plan and budget. One of the items in this budget was $50k for a vehicle. I don't remember what the grand total was but the cost of the vehicle is indicative of the extravagance. To fund this excursion he wanted every member of the flock to sign a promise to put at least $50 in the offering plate every Sunday. Coincidentally this guy, as a side job, manages investments exclusively for wealthy Christians. He was the consummate charlatan-tent preacher snake-in-the-grass ever-smiling flock fleecer. wowww. damn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith666 Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 "I was invited to a three-day conference on homosexuality..." Okay. Seriously. This is disgusting. It's not enough for Christians and Muslims and whoever else belongs to a religion that tends to spread stuff like this to comment "We don't support hate" on their friends' Facebook statuses and benignly "like" #PrayForOrlando profile pictures. They need to speak out and say that spreading intolerance is wrong, killing or harming others in any way is unacceptable, unequivocally announce that violence and imprisonment of people who haven't done anything to anyone must not be tolerated. I hear a lot of "we don't support that lifestyle" and "love the sinner, hate the sin" from religious people. I don't hear enough of "Stop hurting people." Sinner is still a label, it still encourages blind anger against anyone who gets stuck with that label and therefore aggression against them. It seems to me that religious fundies are too afraid of seeming tolerant of a so-called sin to denounce hateful behavior. All they want to talk about is the homosexual agenda and how America has turned its back on god. And when you ask them outright, they'll say they aren't in favor of murdering and jailing gay people, but do they preach this? Do they speak from the pulpit that our duty as humans is to support each other, no matter our sexuality, religion, race, sex, etc.? I might be wrong about this; maybe there are fundies brave enough to say "You are wrong to control other people's lives." But it looks like when they address gayness, the great majority of the time it's to talk about sinfulness and not opposing intolerance. If you are going to belong to a religion that puts down certain people and says the way they are is wrong, you need to take responsibility and stand up for them when the followers you preach to begin persecuting them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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